


Skin Deep

by havisham



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Double Drabble, Gen, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-11
Updated: 2012-03-11
Packaged: 2017-11-01 19:53:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/360607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meditations on ridiculous levels of beauty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skin Deep

Before the war when all such luxuries like time and boredom disappeared, Sybil would sometimes sit at her mirror and wondered what others saw in her. Beauty is only skin deep, and for Sybil, her face is just like anyone else’s, like Mary’s or Edith’s.

( Or Anna’s or Gwen’s .)

She tilts her head slightly, and wishes she could see what others saw, that made rooms sudden quiet when she entered, that made confident young men blush. 

She smiles slightly. Her lashes flutter. Her lips pout.

Sybil is not so naive. She knows that beauty is power. Often it is the most potent thing a women posesses. But she also know it _fades_ \-- and she’s not satisfied with that. 

Sybil wants to speak, and she want others to listen. 

Beauty will not be enough.

 

Lost in her thoughts, she only now feels the pressure of hands on her shoulders. 

Laughingly, Mary swoops in, her amused face reflected back to them both. She says, “Honestly, Sybil, you’re getting to be quite vain!”

Sybil sticks her tongue out at Mary (a childish response, but Mary does bring that out in her.) 

Only to have her sister swat her lightly on her back. Mary needs to have the last words (as she must always have.) 

 

“Careful," she says, gently tucking away adark curl that falls on Sybil's face, "It might stay that way!”


End file.
